I Like You
by Auntieoaty
Summary: This could stand alone but it is actually intended as a prologue to some little vignettes I will post separately as "Mechanical Dates"


Early afternoon on Wednesday Walt entered the empty office, he stepped up to Ruby's desk to see if there were any post-it's waiting for him, then remembered Ruby had gone to the dentist earlier so she couldn't had left him any notes. Just as he turned toward his office he heard a noise coming from the reading room, "Hello?" he called out.

Vic's voice sounded back at him, "In here, damn it!"

He stepped around the corner and looked into the reading room in time to see Vic on a step stool; stretching in an attempt to get a long squatty box off the top shelf. Her efforts were not looking too fruitful as he watched her reach out again for the box, this time rising on her toes.

Walt cleared his throat and said, "I've been called a lot of things but 'Damn it's' never been one of them."

She shot him a glance over her shoulder and began to enunciate very slowly has though explaining something to a child, "The 'in here' was for you, the 'damn it' was for the stupid paper cut I just got from this damned cardboard box." Vic tilted her head, eyes rolled upward as if to add 'Got that?' to the end of her statement.

"Right."

Walt stood in the doorway and watched Vic stretch again, rising up farther onto her toes, to reach the item she was after; he noticed she was losing her balance. He stepped forward just in time to keep her from falling off the stepstool. His left hand grasped her left hip but his right hand overshot and came around her waist effectively seating against his right shoulder; knocking his hat to the floor behind him.

"Here I'll do it."

"No, I got it. Just let me up."

"Okay." He eased her back up to a standing position on the step stool but kept his hands on her hips.

Vic looked down at him and said, "I can't do this if you're holding on to me."

Keeping his hands in place he shook his head slightly, "Not holding you down just want to stop you in case you start to fall." Walt looked past her to where she had been trying to reach and motioned with his head, "Go ahead."

"Walt I didn't say you were holding me down. I said I couldn't do this if you're holding me."

He gave her a look that said 'Same thing' but left his hand in place.

"It's distracting."

"Oh." His hands stayed put for a moment longer while she continued to look at him. Normally he would have been embarrassed by such a statement from her; would have looked away and snatched his hands back. But this time he maintained eye contact as he eased his grasp on her hips and let his hands slowly slip from her hips and down the sides of her jeans, before letting them fall loose at his sides.

She wondered if he had any idea what he was doing to her, then figured he must have some idea because it was surely showing in her face.

Walt gave her a little shrug, "Better?"

Vic held his gaze; her expression and flushed face saying maybe it wasn't better as she conceded, "Less distracting."

He said nothing more, just looked back up to the high shelf and waited for her to finish her task. Vic turned, stretched, and wrapped the fingers of one hand around the end of the odd shaped box and pulled, ripping the outer tab off the end of the box. She nearly fell off the step stool when the box tab ceased providing resistance and gave way. Walt quickly shot his arms forward and braced her back while she regained her footing.

A sigh of frustration escaped her, "That damned thing is really stuck." Walt had dropped his hands when she started speaking as she had been stable enough on her feet to turn and face him, "All that paper stacked on top has it wedged in there behind the shelf brace."

"Let me try." Walt said as he easily lifted Vic off the stepstool and set her down to his right, effectively trapping her in the room with him as she couldn't get past the stool to get out the door. He climbed up the steps and started pulling at the box. The tiny pieces of cardboard he ripped off the end of the box looked like foundation material for a rat's nest. After a few moments of ripping and shredding, Walt brushed a pile of the cardboard nesting material off the shelf and onto the floor below. He reached in the box, tugging and grunting a few seconds, before successfully extracting a toner cartridge from the box.

He handed it down to Vic, "Something wrong?"

She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head slightly as she smirked at him, "No. I was just enjoying the view."

"Oh." Walt turned his attention from her back to the stool and eased his way down the few steps to the floor. He stepped back and crushed the crown of his forgotten hat that was still lying where it had fallen earlier. Stepping back another step Walt bent and snatched the abused felt from the floor before looking at Vic, his expression unreadable as he stared at her.

She started to stare back at him but decided against it and simply said, "Sorry about your hat."

"Mmm," he managed a nod but said nothing more.

"Uhm, could you move the step stool for me so I can get out?" She motioned with the toner cartridge, indicating she could not manage the stool just then.

Walt dropped his hat in the sink, moved the stool, and stepped to the side to let her pass. He left Vic to fight with the copier, knowing he would only make matters worse if he offered to help. After he folded the step stool and carefully tucked it over along the wall where it usually sat he pulled the hand broom and dust pan off the wall. Once he had swept up the cardboard pieces he had brushed to the floor earlier and dumped them in the trash, he put the little broom and dust pan away. Turning to the sink Walt grabbed his hat and went to his office. As soon as he hung up his coat and dropped his mangled hat on the desk; warped brim up, he went back to get a cup of coffee. Returning with the cup in hand he noticed Vic was still struggling to change out the cartridge. He heard her mutter something about how easily Ruby could always do it and how she could never get it right the first time no matter what she tried. Walt sat with one hip on the edge of Vic's desk while he watched her bent over the waist high drawer of the machine. He set the coffee cup on her desk; an action that resulted in an uncharacteristically loud thud.

Vic turned at the sound giving him an intense stare, "Something wrong?"

"Nope. Just enjoying the view." He grinned.

Vic snapped the cartridge in place, closed the copier and then stalked over to Walt. She seemed to have gone from mildly irritated to truly pissed in an instant. But before he could apologize Vic started, "Look I shouldn't have said that earlier. It was inappropriate. I don't like when Omar does that shit to me and I shouldn't do it to you."

Walt looked confused, "Omar? What the hell does Omar have to do with anything?"

"I saw him this morning at the gas station. Seems to think because I'm divorced now, it's open season on flirting with Vic."

"Want me to talk to him?"

She scoffed, "Yeah and say what? You've talk to him before. So have I. Never does any good."

"Well you know he only says those things 'cause he likes you."

"Yeah well I only said it because I…" Vic trailed off and looked over toward the cell.

"What?"

She turned back to him and snapped, "I like you," before dropping her eyes to her boots.

Walt fought against a grin; Vic thinking he was laughing at her, true or not, would not be good for his health, "Well I like you too."

She shifted her feet, lifted her head, looked directly in his eyes, and narrowed her gaze, "No Walt. I mean, I _like _you."

His mouth tightened into a slight smirk as he returned her intense gaze, "I knew what you meant Vic. And like I said, 'I _like_ you too'."

Vic's eyes softened a little and her body visibly relaxed some but she said nothing.

"Would you like me to tell Omar tomorrow when I see him that we like each other?"

Vic made a sound that could only but interpreted as a dismissive snort, "I think that is far too innocuous to get Omar's attention."

"Well I could tell him we're dating, but that's not true."

Vic smirked at him, "No it's not, but I think I can fix that. Wanna grab a pizza and beer with me after work tonight?"

Walt smiled at her/ He found his was strangely delighted at the thought of going out with her, "Sure, but that's only one date not 'dating'."

Scrunching her mouth up and grimacing at him Vic said, "Yeah and I don't think you could lie well enough to convince Omar."

Optimism laced his words as Walt suggested, "How about lunch today?"

Vic's eyes sparkled at him as she accepted the informal invitation, "Okay. That makes it more than one date."

Walt hedged, "Yeah, but…"

Her expression fell, "What?"

Concern crossed Walt's face as he explained, "I think if I knew all the dates were already over I might still have trouble convincing Omar we were actually dating."

"Okay, then we'll have dinner tomorrow night too."

"But you're off tomorrow."

She shot him a 'yeah, so?' look but said "So you come to my house. I'm off, I'll cook dinner."

Walt looked uncertain, "You sure you wanna do that?"

"I offered didn't I?"

"Yeah"

Vic sounded slightly exasperated, "So, you coming or what?"

"I look forward to it."

Vic rolled her eyes and shook her head slightly as she grinned at him, "You know this is really silly,"

Walt grinned back "What?"

"Us standing here constructing 'dates' in such a mechanical manner."

"Oh. So, you don't want to date me?"

"I didn't say that. I just said it was silly the way we were going about it."

"Well, I'm kinda outta practice. How should we go about it?"

Vic narrowed her gaze on him again to help stress her point, "I kind of like the direct, more spontaneous approach."

"Such as?"

"You really want me to show you?"

Curiosity played across his features and for a moment his eyes looked slightly hesitant but Walt gave her a 'why the he'll not' smirk and said, "Sure."

"Okay, but can I start my lunch break now?"

He looked at her quizzically, "Why?"

"Because I don't think I should kiss my boss while on the clock."

"Oh. Okay."

Vic closed the short distance between them placed her left hand on his chest and her right hand at the base of his head she leaned in, gave him a firm but relatively short kiss and then pulled her head back to look him in the eye, "Something kinda like that."

Walt looked at her and grinned slowly at her as though the idea was beginning to dawn on him, "I think I get the idea," He drew both arms around her lower back and pulled her to him, lowering his head he kissed her more soundly than she had him. As she responded to the kiss he deepened it causing Vic to clutch at the collar of his shirt just as a small moan escaped her. Walt eased his hold on her lower back ever so slightly and slowly drew his mouth away from hers, resting his forehead against hers he asked, "Something like that?"

Vic nodded her head against his and answered in a breathy tone, "Yeah, something like that."

They heard a noise on the landing just outside the door and quickly separated. Vic spun around to the face the door as Walt took a quick swipe across his mouth with his sleeve in case there was a chance of there being any lipstick on his mouth but remained sitting on the edge of Vic's desk.

Ruby walked in apologizing for being so late with the dentist. Vic and Walt tried not to look like a couple of guilty teenagers caught in the act.

Walt placed his right hand on Vic's shoulder and slightly nudged her forward into motion while he greeted the older woman, "Not a problem Ruby. Vic and I are headed to lunch. See you in about an hour." They had almost reached the door when he added, "Oh and Vic changed the toner cartridge for you."

"Thank you Vic."

"You're welcome." Vic started to turn and smile but decided it would be safer to keep the least amount of eye contact between them as possible; so as not to give herself away.

As Walt turn to go out the door behind Vic Ruby almost stopped him but decided better of it. She figured he would discover soon enough that he had toner ink in his hair and across his collar. The older woman smiled knowingly to herself and went about putting her personal things away before starting to work.


End file.
